Total Body Workout II

This is Tom Holland's second Total Body Workout. At just 24 minutes, it is significantly shorter than his earlier workout, but the use of compound moves makes this second workout more intense. Like all of Tom's videos, the workout is shot in "real time," meaning there are no edits; it's just you and Tom working out one-on-one. The Main DVD Menu offers options for "Complete Workout 2" or "Exercise Menu 2." If you click on the latter, you will obtain a list of all the exercises as follows:

For a warm-up, Tom just has you do whatever cardio moves you like for 1 minute, and he encourages you to cool down on your own. As you can see, Tom really likes lunges! Although there are a ton of lunges, overall, the workout felt more upper body focused--ie, my upper body felt way more fatigued than my lower by the end of the workout, and I had trouble executing some of the upper body moves because of this. You'd be surprised how worn-out you can get in just 24 minutes! There isn't anything new and different about these exercises, and there's not much of a "fun factor" to this workout, but if you like compound movements and are looking to do some straight-forward strength training in a short amount of time, this workout should serve you well.

Instructor Comments:
Tom reminds me a lot of Gunnar Peterson (Core Secrets); he has a similar demeanor and says "goood" in exactly the same way. His cueing is minimal, and he does not mirror cue; he comes across as your friendly but tough fitness trainer, which I believe is his intent.

Summary: This is a great circuit workout that fills a very unusual niche. But Ė warning -- if youíre not looking to fill that particular niche, you wonít like it at all.

Tom Hollandís Total Body Workout II is only 24-minutes long, but manages to skim every major muscle group by moving at lightning speed following a circuit format. I used 5- and 8-pound dumbbells throughout and could not have gone any heavier due to the speed of the reps and the way many of the exercises combine upper and lower body resistance training simultaneously. The workout keeps your heart rate and breathing up and it hits all your muscle groups, but it doesnít hit them hard. (Iíve been lifting for years, but Iím wimpy so still consider myself an intermediate-level lifter.)

Each circuit begins with 30 seconds of pick-your-own-vigorous-cardio such as jumping jacks or running in place. The cardio is followed by one or two combination upper/lower body exercises (lunges with front raises, lunges with overhead presses, squats with side raises and so forth), then various upper body exercises, then ab work, next plank variations and finally push-ups. After the push-ups, get up and start over again with the 30-second cardio. Three rounds of this and youíre done. All the reps are fast, which requires a lot of focus and balance when youíre doing lunges with overhead presses or side raises. Thereís no cool down or stretch and you may want to add a warm-up. I would not recommend the workout for beginning lifters because I think the rep pace is too fast.

TBW II is downright pretty. I loved the set and the production values. Tomís brother Joe Holland provides the original vocal and acoustic soundtrack. The music works well with the exercises and makes the DVD truly exceptional. The set is minimalist, very white background with a bright blue mat, chrome weights Ė and Tom.

Tom is as blue-eyed and ripped as ever. Somehow he manages to make you feel as if heís in your home giving a one-on-one personal training session. (Must pause to imagine that. J) Tom definitely breaks a sweat in TBW II, so if that troubles you, prepare to be troubled anew. He sweats and he expects you to sweat too.

Iím very happy with this workout, but it wonít be everyoneís cup of tom. If you dislike combining upper- and lower-body training, you will not like this workout. If youíre looking for slow, measured reps, look elsewhere. If you donít understand why people like express workouts, forget about it. If youíre hoping to build muscle, nope, not here. However it does accomplish quite a bit and it matches my current strength goals very nicely: I want to prevent injury while continuing to do lots of running and cycling, encourage muscular balance and endurance, lose weight and build core strength. I think TBW II delivers that in a 24-minute package with a beautiful set, a personable, appealing instructor and a unique soundtrack.

Tom Holland's Total Body Workout II is a 20-minute circuit workout utilizing compound movements. I've come to use Mr. Holland's first 45-minute workout so often that I could not wait for this second release. Now that I've done it, I'm very pleased and am sure it will become another staple in my rotation. Keep in mind that this review is being written by an unabashed AWT (Firm/FitPrime)junkie.

The set is similar to Tom Holland's set in the first workout DVD -- white, with a bright blue mat on the floor, water bottles on a white cubicle, and a tomato red towel draped across another white cubicle. It's attractive and to the point, just like Tom Holland is. The music is different in this workout DVD, though. TBW2 features a soundtrack by Tom's brother, Joe. Joe Holland sounds like a subdued Dave Matthews. Someone else could probably characterize Joe's sound better than I can, but my point is that I enjoyed it. It's so much better than the canned music I hear on 80 percent of the other workout DVDs I own.

As with Tom's past workout DVD, you get to choose the sort of cardio you do here. Tom usually does jumping jacks, but you can jog, walk, etc. The workout consists of doing cardio spurts for 30 - 60 seconds in between a long series of compound movements. I won't break the workout down exactly, but basically it's 15 to 20 repetitions of each of the following compound exercises with a few cardio segments throw in:

Some of you are really going to holler about this workout. Tom Holland does not begin the workout with * any * warm-up and stretch, nor does he end the workout with a cool-down and stretch. It's not a problem for me. I have plenty of other fitness DVDs from which I can pull stretches & warm-ups. Still, I wish he had included these segments on this workout.

People who dislike compound movements (FitPrime's Time Crunch comes to mind) won't like this one. And those who have knee troubles may want to modify this workout because there are a number of lunges. Finally, some of you may not like the fact that Tom Holland actually sweats a lot in this DVD. (A fan would have helped. Pun intended.)

I hate to throw a lot of disclaimers out there, because I really liked Tom Holland's Total Body Workout II a lot. It was worth the wait!

Instructor Comments:
Tom Holland is an All-American personal trainer who appeals to both men and women alike. He gets down to business right away. He offers lots of form pointers, too. Like Cathe Friedrich, he achieves that rare balance of being friendly & engaged with his audience while maintaining a no-nonsense professional stance. I've had two positive interactions with his company which suggest that he runs his busines the same way he runs his workouts -- friendly, to-the-point, and attentive. He does not use background exercisers, so there's no occasion for chattiness or goofiness here. I like that. Mr. Holland is one of my favorite instructors, and my only critique is that he does not produce his workout DVDs fast enough.